Academy V Apprenticeships
So you're thinking about booking one of our courses. Excellent news, but let us take a wild guess at what type of reactions you're getting, some good and some bad. That's the thing with Tattoo Academies, you'll find people are either for or against with very strong opinions! I'm sure you've heard "You can never learn to tattoo in 2 weeks" or "The only way to learn how to tattoo is through an apprenticeship". The number one question we get asked is, will I be qualified at the end of the two week course,and the simple answer is no, but what you will have is nearly 30 years of knowledge and the tricks of the trade being shared and put into practice over the two weeks. Dedication, commitment and lots of practice is whats required,how do we learn? Repetitiveness. anyone that has come through our Academy will confirm that we always say,you get back what you put into this business, and that's pretty much the same with everything in life.
Our opinion is why have an industry that is so closed that it can only be a dream for so many people!
Thankfully Tattoo Academies do exist today because without them only the very lucky few will be offered Tattoo apprenticeships, after all it is such a difficult industry to get into and most budding Tattoo artists that have tried rocking up to their local Tattoo studio's with portfolio in hand and a head full of dreams about becoming a great Tattooist only to be shown the door in under a minute,yep, I was in this exact same position in the late 80's,pop over to our Tattoo studio's website for that story www.livingarttattoos.
It's pretty scary walking into a Tattoo studio looking for the elusive apprenticeship and I see the same look on people's faces when they walk into our Tattoo Studio,the exact same look I had when I was trying to become a Tattooist and if it wasn't for a bit of good luck and being in the right place at the right time then I would not be writing this now.
I got a chance to hang around a Tattoo studio for a couple of weeks in Sheffield at the beginning of 1991 taking notes, asking questions and trying to absorb as much info as possible,but then I was on my own, To say it was scary time is an understatement and I have no issues with telling you how many mistakes I made in the first few years (remember there was no Internet and no Academies at this time) I really was out of my comfort zone.
It was always my intention to open an Academy to try and give people the opportunity to follow there chosen career. Our intention was never to replace the traditional tattoo apprenticeship with Tattoo courses. Tattoo apprenticeships will always have their place in the industry and rightfully so! But lets be realistic, apprenticeships are super difficult to get and not everyone can work for free for however long the apprenticeship is, whether it's 2 years or 4 years. We get so many people that are looking for a career change but have kids and mortgages so an apprenticeship is to big a sacrifice. Also not everyone who tries out tattooing will say" Yes, this is for me!" It gives many people of all ages the opportunity to try and shouldn't we all have the chance to try any career we like. And don't be mistaken by watching your Tattooist and thinking "Wow,this is easy", it's not easy. So whether you choose a course or get apprenticeship, a lot of hard work and dedication is required.
Women in the Tattoo industry is also a topic we want to cover. Almost every woman who attends one of our courses is a little( if not more) terrified arriving on the first day as Tattoo Studios are known to be intimidating and mostly male dominated places. We are delighted to prove this illusion wrong and have them relaxed in minutes also pointing out how we have a higher ratio of women to men attending our courses. Whether you're in our Academy or our Studio,it's a relaxed, non intimidating, friendly environment.Women have always found it a difficult industry to get into but thankfully that has all changed in recent years.
Tattoo kits, lets address that now. It's a crazy idea to think you can buy a Tattoo kit online for £50 and expect it to be good quality and to expect to be able to pick it up and just Tattoo with no guidance or by just looking at a couple of online tutorials, if that was the case there would be no need for apprenticeships or Tattoo courses.
This brings us onto the importance of hygiene and infection control. One of our main aims throughout our courses is to prevent infection in your future career. This is every Tattooists worst nightmare but with proper teaching is entirely preventable. We can proudly say that in nearly 30 years of Tattooing we have never caused an infection. Tattooing is one side of the course, infection control is the other and without proper infection control knowledge you will never be a successful Tattooist. Councils and governments worldwide focus entirely on infection control so that in itself will show you the importance of it! Students attending our courses have repeatedly said how they are blown away with our attention to hygiene and our infection control awareness. We were the first Academy to intertwine Infection Control for Tattooists Level 2 VTQ with our course,with other Academies following suit not long after. What this means is that alongside our course you complete an online infection control course with a separate accredited certificate.
It really is a proud moment on week two of our course watching our students that have made the brave decision to Tattoo themselves and put everything they have learned into action,and more often than not having never held a Tattoo machine prior to one of our courses,just look at some of these examples in our gallery and also check out our Instagram page..So don't let anyone tell you that you can't learn to tattoo in two weeks as the pictures in the gallery speak for themselves.